Saturday, October 11, 2014

It is so far away that only one spacecraft has ever come close to it: Voyager 2.
On September 5, 1977 the Voyager spacecraft was launched into space.
Voyager 2 took 2 years to get to Jupiter, 4 years to get to Saturn, and then 9 years to get to Uranus!

When Voyager 2 made it to Uranus, it found 10 moons that we didn't know existed, studied the air and space around it, found two new rings around the planet, and took pictures of the moons and Uranus.

In 2004, the Cassini part of the spacecraft launched the Huygens probe to land on the moon Titan.
It landed on Titan and sent back some information about the surface along with some great pictures of things we've never been able to see before.

Saturday, September 27, 2014

On April 6, 1973 the Pioneer 11 spacecraft was launched into space. It took 6 years to get to Saturn. When it got there it flew very close and took pictures of the planet, the rings and moons.

On September 5, 1977 the Voyager spacecraft was launched into space. It took 3 years to get to Saturn and sent back very good pictures of the planet, it's rings and moons.
One of Saturn's moons called Titan is very interesting because it has air and water like earth.
The Voyager got very close to Titan, but the sky around it was cloudy so we could not take pictures.

On August 20, 1977 the Voyager 2 spacecraft was launched into space. It took 4 years to get to Saturn and sent back very good pictures of the rings, moon and planet.

On both of the Voyager spacecrafts was something called the Golden Record.
On one side of the record were pictures and the other side were sounds.
They hoped that if anyone ever found our spacecraft they would know that intelligent life was out in space.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

We launched many spacecrafts to go fly by Jupiter and take close pictures.
Pioneer 10 in 1972, Pioneer 11 in 1973.
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were both launched in 1977.
Ulysses was launched in 1990.
Cassini-Huygens was launced in 1997.
New Horizons was launched in 1006.

All of the spacecraft took about 2 years to get to Jupiter, and most of them continued flying on to look at other planets.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

We've learned about the spacecrafts that flew near the planet Mars, and the ones that landed on the planet to take measurements.

The latest and best spacecrafts to visit Mars have been rovers.
These are types of spacecrafts that travel to the planet, then a small thing like a car drives around the planet studying it and sending information back to scientists on Earth.

Saturday, September 6, 2014

We've learned about the space exploration of Mars and the spacecrafts that got near the planet.
There have also been space crafts that have landed on Mars and studied the planet.

The Russian space program had their Mars program:

Mars 2 was launched May 19, 1971, and crash landed on the planet.
Mars 3 was launched May 28, 1971, landed on the planet and sent back information for 14.5 seconds before it stopped working.
Mars 6 was launched August 5, 1973, and crash landed on the planet.

The US NASA space program had their Viking program:

The Viking 1 was launched August 20, 1975
The Viking 2 was launched September 9, 1975
Both of these spacecrafts had orbiters and landers. The orbiters circled the planet taking pictures, and then launched landers to the ground.
The landers then did scientific experiments on the ground to test the dirt and the air.

Saturday, August 30, 2014

The first missions to explore Mars were to take pictures and science measurements as the spacecraft flew by the planet.

Russia was first in 1962 with the Mars 1.

The US sent the Mariner 4 in 1964, the Mariner 6 and 7 in 1969, and the Mariner 9 in 1971.
The Mariner 9 was the first spacecraft to take pictures of the Mars moon Phobos.
(from: wikipedia - mariner 9)

Saturday, August 16, 2014

We've learned that Venus space exploration started in 1962 with the Mariner 2 space craft that flew by the planet,
and then after that the exploration continued closer into the planet's atmosphere with the Venera 3-6 and Mariner 5 space crafts.

The exploration continued on, as scientists tried to land space crafts on the surface, or get the space craft close enough to take pictures of the surface from outer space.

For 13 years, the Russian space program sent 10 different space crafts to study Venus.
Venera 7 - 14 all were landers that studied the surface after landing on the planet, and 15 - 16 studied the planet from space.

For 5 years the US NASA space program sent 3 space crafts to study Venus.
Mariner 10 and did a fly by on its way to Mercury.
Pioneer Venus Orbiter orbited around the planet to study from space.
Pioneer Venus Multiprobe studied the atmosphere and also had some probes land on the surface to study it.
(from: wikipedia - pioneer venus multiprobe)

Saturday, August 9, 2014

After the Mariner 2 space craft got close to the planet Venus, scientists kept trying to get closer.

Starting in 1967, the Russians sent some spacecrafts to study the air around Venus (called the atmosphere).
The Venera 3 was first but it crashed on the planet and never sent back any information.
They sent 3 more spacecrafts, the Venera 4, Venera 5 and Venera 6.

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Even though the corona is outside the surface of the sun, it is even hotter than the surface!
The photosphere surface is about 10,000 degrees F, and the corona is over 5,000,000 degrees F.
(from: wikipedia - corona)

Saturday, June 7, 2014

The heat that is made at the solar core is because of the energy the core makes using something called fusion.

Remember we learned that atoms are very very tiny things, smaller than the tiniest grain of sand. So small that we can't see them without special super microscopes.
And hydrogen is a type of gas, kind of like the oxygen we breathe.

When hydrogen atoms are smashed together really really hard and fast, fusion can happen, and the hydrogen turns into helium.
When that happens it releases a HUGE amount of energy.

Compared to an explosion from a stick of dynamite, it is over a quintillion times bigger!
A quintillion is a 1 with 18 zeroes after it: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000

That much energy from fusion is created every single second of every day,
and it's what creates the heat and light that keep the sun going.

Just think of it as a whole bunch of tiny little things making huge explosions every second
so that we can stay warm and have sunshine every day.
(from: wikipedia - fusion power)